Novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce writes about his relationship with Mary, Mother of Jesus – and Mary’s Meals, the charity that bears her name and feeds 2,279,941 hungry children every school day

The last walk I took with my mother before she died was through the grounds of what had once been a Jesuit seminary – Loyola Hall. It had recently been converted into a wedding venue, its chapel lined with feathers, so Mum said it was like standing under a giant chicken.  

There’s a wooden bower hidden in the trees for you to pose for photographs on your big day. Inexplicably there’s also a gigantic model of King Kong. But there’s also, still, the little grotto with a statue of St Bernadette kneeling before Our Lady.